Men who recorded having all five favorable sleep factors averaged a 4.7-year-longer life span than those who had none or only one of these factors, while women who had none or only one of those factors averaged a 2.4-year-longer life span.
While more research is needed to rule out errors due to inaccuracies in self-reporting, this data suggests that it’s important to prioritize overall sleep quality when it comes to living a longer, healthier life.
“I think these findings emphasize that just getting enough hours of sleep isn’t sufficient. You really have to have restful sleep and not have much trouble falling and staying asleep,” Frank Qian, M.D., an internal medicine resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess who worked on the research, said in a statement.
